How about this for a palate pleaser:

A mini parfait that has a flourless chocolate cake so moist you need a spoon to scoop it up, alternating with layers of a creamy burnt butter icing, all topped with a crescent-shaped almond-and-coffee-bean crisp drizzled with chocolate.

Sounds like pure yummy decadence.

Culinary students Kyle Thomas and Chad Thompson put together the confection during a pastry chef class at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.

"One of the new themes in many restaurants is to do mini desserts," said pastry chef Lana Petfield, who is teaching the morning class. Students have also made tiny tiramisu, caramelized apple tartlets, miniature ginger crème caramel, little brandied cherry upside-down cakes and other miniature desserts -- nine in all.

Petfield and some of the culinary arts students will turn their attention and talents solely to chocolate in a few days when they participate in the Chocolate Festival at the University of Richmond.

The Chocolate Festival showcases some of the area's best chefs who do more things with chocolate than you thought possible. The event is presented by the Virginia Chefs' Association and is a fundraiser for the Chef Otto Bernet Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Students in the Culinary Arts Club at J. Sargeant Reynolds last year made chocolate chili and a spicy Mayan hot chocolate.

"They both went over really, really well," said student Carly Herring. "A lot of people were blown away by the chili. Chocolate was originally used in savory dishes in Mayan and Incan culture. So we kind of did a little Tex-Mex spin on that."

For their offerings this year, the students are going for a Belgian theme.

For their sweet dish, they will do a chocolate Belgian waffle with maple ice cream and a sauce.

They still hadn't decided recently what their savory offering would be. One option being considered was a dish with mussels simmered in a white chocolate and saffron broth and garnished with white chocolate.

"These are edgy enough ingredients," said chef John T. Maxwell, program head of the culinary arts program at J. Sargeant Reynolds. "It's kind of like extreme cooking."

Another option the students are considering is duck cooked with a chocolate sauce containing black currants and raspberries.

"There is a higher chance this will be [a more] universally accepted flavor than the mussels, but my vote's for the mussels," said Maxwell.

Herring knows which one she preferred: "I think the duck will be a big hit. Everybody loves duck, and everybody loves food on a stick," she said, explaining how they might serve the duck.

Ultimately, it will be a consensus decision. Show up at the Chocolate Festival, and you get to see what the students decided.

Festival tickets are $10. Local chocolate vendors will be among those with tasting booths.